Secret Recipe Club: Chicken and Vegetable Cobbler

So.
It's time again for the Secret Recipe Club!  When last we left our heroine, she was once again eating carbs and enjoying Pumpkin Muffins.  This month, I took a slightly different tact when looking for a recipe.
The blog I was assigned was one that I am familiar with because we've been involved in other projects together.  I was pleased to have a chance to explore Adventures in All Things Food written by Andrea.  Andrea lives on a farm, has really cute kids, and is crafty.  But she does also cook.
I decided that I didn't want to be just baking again this month.  I mean, I love to bake, and with Andrea's participation in #BundtBakers there were some amazing cakes to choose from (including my favourite cake, Pineapple Upsidedown Cake; or how about Rum Rocky Road??)  But I decided that I wanted to make an entree, so I searched chicken, and came up with something yummy.
When I first told J I wanted to make a chicken cobbler, he looked at me a little oddly.  Like myself, I reserve the use of the word "cobbler" for a fruit dessert.  But with this casserole chock full of chicken and vegetables under a crispy topping, baked in the dish that I would normally make the fruit dish, I am more than willing to make an exception.  But whatever.  When the weather won't warm up, this was a welcome dinner.  On a miserable and drizzly night, we were warmed from the inside out.
I present to you now from Adventures in All Things Food, Chicken and Vegetable Cobbler:

Secret Recipe Club: Impossible Spinach Pie

So.
Yeah, it's been a while.  But that's okay, because I'm back, and with a scary good recipe.
Welcome to the first Monday of the month, also known as Secret Recipe Club Group A Reveal Day!  Remember the Secret Recipe Club?  It's a group of bloggers who get together, exchange blogs, make something in secret, and all reveal what we made from each other's blogs at the same time.  Very fun!  This month, I was thrilled with my assigned blog, Shockingly Delicious.
On the Facebook page for the Club, Dorothy and her nemesis Sally choose and brag about their assignments every month.  I'm awed by their speed and dedication to the feud.  It was so much fun to go through Dorothy's blog and see the kinds of things she makes and shares.
I considered lots of options - there are so many!  I looked through "Cheap and Easy" for inspiration, and considered more carbs with her breakfast options before finally settling on a retro favourite.
Impossible Pies were a revolution with Bisquick baking mix in the 1970s.  Both savoury and sweet, you put the filling in the pie plate, pour a batter of eggs and Bisquick over and bake; and amazingly, they turn into a quiche-like pie.
Dorothy had a ton of options.  I want to make them all:  Enchilada, Lasagna, and finally what I made for dinner: Spinach.  She even had a recipe to make a small batch of Bisquick-type mix so I wouldn't have to buy a box!  I was sold.
I present to you now from Shockingly Delicious, Impossible Spinach Pie:

#FreshTastyValentines: Tex-Mex Stuffed Butternut Squash

So.

One of the promises that I made to J with his new healthy eating outlook was that I would cook 1 meatless dinner a week.  This was probably one of my less popular promises, seeing as my husband is big on meat.  Big.  As in if I cooked it 3 times a day he'd be all good.
But I went looking for some dishes that contained more beans and less animal protein on my favourite source for such things - Pinterest.  I even created a new board so that I could find things more easily.  This is one of the first things I pinned, knowing full well how much my husband wouldn't be in favour.
While J likes way more vegetables than I do, he's not a fan of squash - except as pumpkin in baked good form.  I like it, but never cook it as a result.  However, I had high hopes for this as really the squash was a vehicle for the Tex-Mex flavours that J is a fan of.  I was wrong.  It's too bad, really; seeing as this is delicious.  I made the stuffing for 4 (I didn't want to use half a can of black beans and have half a can leftover) and took it to work for lunch for a few days afterwards.  It's filling, and so, so good.
I scraped my squash half clean.  J?  Well, he ate the filling and said it was good.  I personally would recommend both.  I present to you now from Life Tastes Good, Tex-Mex Stuffed Butternut Squash:

Son of Magazine Challenge: Cheesy Hash Brown Bake

So.
I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned in the past that the only thing my husband makes when I'm here is chili.  He likes to start with the Wick Fowler 2 Alarm Chili Kit and "makes it [his] own" by having me chop an onion to toss in along with a drained can of kidney beans.  It's really good, and thankfully makes enough for a couple of meals plus lunch for me for a couple of days.
The last time, however, I asked J if we could make this with the leftovers of the chili, and we actually ate this the next 2 days for lunch.  It's that good.  Trust me.
So if you're looking for something to do with the leftover chili from your last tailgate, and want a new twist on something delicious, might I suggest this?  It won't be the last time we try it around here.
From the March 2007 issue of Everyday Food, I present to you now Cheesy Hasbrown Bake:

Secret Recipe Club: Bacon Cheeseburger Quiche

So.
It's time once again for Group A's reveal for the Secret Recipe Club.  Not sure what that is?  Skip on over and check it out.  I'll wait.  Promise.
This month I was assigned the blog Thyme for Cooking.  Katie has lived in Ireland, Spain and now resides in France.  Her food is simple and full of fresh ingredients.  Yet I picked the recipe where she mused about Hamburger Helper.  How odd.
I had fun looking through her index, and considered chicken before discovering the savoury pies and quiches.  There were pizzas with puff pastry crusts, and a chicken pot pie that I almost made before I found this quiche.  What originally drew me to it was the use of a potato crust.  I always have trouble getting a properly cooked crust on the bottom of my quiche (yes, I know...blind bake it!), and I thought that perhaps this would be better.
When I told J what I was planning to make, he had one suggestion.  That I add bacon.  How could that be bad?
I present to you now Thyme for Cooking's [Bacon] Cheeseburger Quiche:

Potluck Perfect: Meatball Pizza Casserole

So.
Over Thanksgiving, after a very exciting Michigan win over Penn State, we went to my mom's.  We heard about her adventures in Italy, enjoyed a delicious stuffed pork tenderloin meal, and I caught up on my What's Cooking reading.
The problem with moving as much as J and I have is that I no longer get What's Cooking Magazine.  As one gigantic advertisement for Kraft, it's absolutely brilliant.  That you have to pay for it?  Eh, not nearly as much.  So when it stopped showing up, I ended up embarking on the Magazine Challenge of the past 2 years.  Perhaps not getting the magazine is not all bad.  I've actually made lots of new stuff that is really good.
But when given a chance to watch some TV and flip through magazines, I found myself drawn back into all the interesting things you can make with Kraft.  I saw this, and knew we'd enjoy it.  We did.  For many, many nights.  It would freeze well, too.  I probably should have done that.
I present to you now Kraft's Meatball Pizza Casserole:

Freezer Friendly: Baked Spaghetti

So.
It's been nice to have some unseasonable weather the past couple of weeks.  It's not good pool weather, but we've been out in the hot tub in the evening, and I seem to be making a variety of heavier foods that I can freeze.  Heavier food and hot weather don't really mix.
On the nights in between my freezer forays, I've been grilling and making things that are a little lighter.  But this week, the push is on before I return to work full time.  Bring on the unseasonably cold!  Then warm up on Friday for the BBQ Saturday!  One day, I will be able to control the weather, even if it's not today.
J and I both like spaghetti, and I've talked about making a batch of sauce for the freezer.  It's one of my go-to desperation meals around here...I always have pasta and a bottle or 2 of sauce in the house.  We also buy garlic bread at Costco so it's hiding in the freezer when we want some too.  When I got the Taste of Home freezer magazine, this recipe caught my eye because it looked like it made a ton and was so easy looking.  I also figured I could make it in 8" pans instead of a 9x13".  One to eat now, one to save in the freezer for a busy night.
I present to you now from Betty Rabe of Mahtomedi, MN via Taste of Home Baked Spaghetti:

Bride of Magazine Challenge: Tex Mex Beef Enchiladas

So.
I organized our freezer today.  Somehow, I have managed to accumulate 3 whole pork tenderloins.  I mean, there are a lot of things I can do with pork tenderloin, but I don't always think when I see them on sale.  I actually didn't have as many surprises in the bottom as I was afraid of.  But I do see some tortellini and ravioli dishes in our future.
Now that things down there are organized, it's time to start filling it with things that will be ready for fall when I don't feel like cooking.  J and I were talking today about when the last time was that we went out for dinner.  We think it was the night we came home from Seattle.  That's a good thing.  I keep reminding myself about how I will be grateful when football season is here and there's money for a hotel room...or tailgate supplies from Zingerman's.
Here is the first thing that I've made to fill the freezer.  I made a double batch (numbers reflected in the recipe below) so we could eat and see how they were, and freeze half.  I don't know why I decided to try a new enchilada sauce when the last from Budget Bytes was so successful, but I did.  It's okay (J really liked it), but I like Beth's better.  To each their own.
What I do know is that I'll be happy to pull this out and have dinner that we both like in a reasonably short amount of time.
I present to you now from the June 2006 issue of Everyday Food, Tex-Mex Beef Enchiladas:

Quick Dinner: Chicken and Bean Taco Bake

So.
It's summer, and that means I have time for things like phone calls with friends who I don't connect with often enough.  I had one of those such phone calls this week, and one of the many things we talked about in the hour we spent on the phone was cleaning out the freezer.  Apparently, my friend defrosts her freezer every summer.  She was cooking a turkey this week on her way to the bottom.
Since we moved 2 years ago, I have plugged my chest freezer in and put things in it.  While I am not planning to defrost my freezer anytime soon, I too would like to eat to the bottom of it over the summer.  Thankfully, I also don't have a turkey seeing as I'm the only person here who would eat it.  But perhaps I should defrost from time to time.  What would I do with everything in the freezer while I do that though?
This recipe, however, can help you clean out the freezer if your freezer is anything like mine.  I used up the end of packages of tortillas, cooked chicken that was hiding in a ziploc bag, and a bag of the pinto beans that I cooked in the crock pot last winter.
On a night where you need to clean out the freezer, and really don't have much time, I would recommend this.  J and I enjoyed it.
I present to you now Picky Palate's Chicken and Bean Taco Bake:

Offbeat: Unsurpasta Pizza

So.
I realized recently that I hadn't made anything from Looneyspoons in a while.  We've been eating a lot of simple, quick prep meals recently as work has been crazy.  Meals have been things like baked ham, or burgers, or grilled chicken and veggies.  I made a stir fry one night with a bag of precut vegetables and chicken fillets.  My goal with J is to eat out not more than twice a week - usually on Friday or Saturday.
When looking through my fridge to see what needed to be used up from the week, I found a lot of little bits and pieces.  Then I found this recipe that would use up some of the leftover bits.  While it's not quite the original recipe, my inspiration is for sure the Looneyspoons version.  I just didn't like some of the vegetables, and had an agenda for things I was using up.
I present to you now the Oreos and Coolwhip version of Looneyspoons Unsurpasta Pizza:

Ridiculously Simple: Ranch Chicken Foil Packets

So.
I made these a while ago.  I found the pictures on my camera today, and I can't figure out why I didn't post this.  I don't remember how long ago I made these, and the pictures are just in front of the stuffed potato pictures.  I don't know.  I know my mom was here...perhaps it doesn't really matter.  But the important thing is I made these, they were easy, and J says I can make them again.
I pinned these one night while poking about on Pinterest.  The concept is simple and well familiar to all of us who have been camping.  I liked not adding the freeze-dried gravy.  Ranch is tasty.  I also decided to skip the bacon, despite the fact that these would be really good with the addition of a chopped slice of bacon per package.  We divided the Stove Top three ways, but you could split it four.  I'm pretty sure J would be wondering where the rest of his was.
So what have we learned here?  I have no clue when I made these, but I know they're good.  Bacon makes everything better.  Right.
I present to you now Best Life 4 Moms Ranch Chicken Foil Packets:

So Good: Chicken Black Bean Enchilada Pie

So.
It's a well-established fact that we love Mexican here on the Mountain.  It's also a well-established fact that I love Pinterest.  This is one of the happy stories of Pinterest and my Mexican food love coming together in a weeknight dinner that J tells me I can make whenever I want.
Once again, I was looking at jesser's pins and this caught my eye.  The sauce was easy, the ingredients are things I keep in the house, and it took me about 15 minutes to throw this together and get it in the oven.  Dinner in an hour?  Don't mind if I do!
When I have made Mexican lasagna in the past, I've had issues with the tortillas on the bottom drying out and being uncuttable.  That didn't happen in this case.  Then again, the lowest tortilla wasn't right on the bottom.  I might let it sit a little longer before cutting, but it was all good.
I present to you now Make and Take's Chicken Black Bean Enchilada Pie:

Magazine Challenge: Ham and Potato Bake

So.
I don't know why I'm trying again with something that is described in the notes as a "crustless quiche".  I think I proved in December/January that I'm not really a good judge of all things baked with egg as a filling.  Yet when I decided to have people in for dinner and served ham, I saw this in the March 2005 EDF and knew it would be a good way to use up the leftovers. 
J and I eat a lot of broccoli.  It's one of the few vegetables we agree on.  We've taken to buying large bags of it frozen at Costco.  The fact that this contains simple ingredients that I had on hand made it even easier to make.  Easy and pantry staples.  It was worth a shot, even if I can't judge how long it takes to get eggs to set in the oven. 
I present to you now The Ham and Potato Bake from Everyday Food March, 2005:

Brunch: Hot Chee'sandwich

So.
The first cookbook I ever received was Holly Hobbie's Cookbook.  The inscription inside the front cover is "To Sarah from Mom and Dad.  Happy Cooking!  Christmas 1980".  There are still recipes I make from this book regularly like cornbread and a small batch of brownies.  This is also the book I used when I learned the difference between teaspoon and tablespoon when adding baking powder to a batch of pancakes.
This recipe is also from the book, as almost a hot grilled ham and cheese sandwich.  Every week for lunch, we buy J salad, mushrooms, sliced ham, sliced cheddar and cottage cheese.  He rounds out his lunches with leftovers and so on.  This week, we had lots of leftovers and he didn't get to the ham and cheese.  In a bid to use them up and make brunch for us, I made these sandwiches.
J can eat 2.  I can't.  The extra reheats pretty well.  In fact, it gives the crispy top slice of bread a chance to soften a bit.  So, on a Saturday morning, here's what we ate for breakfast.  I present to you now the Hot Chee'sandwich from Holly Hobbie:

Go to Meal: Bake Thing

You know how there are things you make all the time that are time honoured recipes in your house?  Things that when you don't know what to make, you could always make that?  That's what Kraft Mexican Bake Thing is around here.
Once, back a long time ago, I was flipping through a Kraft What's Cooking magazine and came across this simple recipe that used Kraft Dinner, ground beef, cheese and salsa.  So easy, I made it one weekend.  So easy, I've kept making it.  I've subbed milk for the sour cream, but sour cream is better (it makes the whole thing thicker), I've crushed Tostitos and sprinkled them over the top (I love that).  Any taco seasoning and salsa will do, but I recommend Penzey's Bold taco seasoning and Pace Medium Picante Sauce.  It's pretty spicy like that, though.
The Kraft website give this dish the rather unexciting name, Taco Bake.  Our name comes from J's asking one time what we were having for dinner and my telling him, "You know, that Mexican Bake Thing from the Kraft magazine."  The legend was born.

Shepherdopolous Pie

So.
In the theme of all things healthy, I've been trolling for recipes.  In the theme of cleaning out my freezer, there have been some rather stringent requirements around what we eat.
According to the inscription in the front, I got my copy of Looneyspoons for my 24th birthday.  Their broccoli-cheddar soup is my go to recipe, but I've never made many other things from the book.  With J's new health requirements, that is about to change. 
For those familiar with Looneyspoons, and its successors Crazyplates and Eat, Shrink and Be Merry, it's a cookbook of lowfat recipes with huge taste and a huge helping of puns.  The book is old enough that some recipes are a little outdated for current nutrition trends, but as a basic book it's got some good ideas.
This is one of them.  I present to you now Shepherdopolous Pie:

Go To Meal: Crockpot Lasagna

So.
We've established that I'm a control freak, and that I have issues getting dinner on the table, even in summer apparently.  As a result, it's nice to have things that are simple, last a few days, and are delicious.  Bonus points if my husband can start them and have dinner ready when I get home.
Here is a case in point.  If the crockpot is ready, he can plug it in and make sure dinner's ready for us.  I'm always on the search for new recipes for the crockpot that are good, easy. and look appetizing.  Sometimes, I find the chicken rubbery, the roasts all taste the same, and everything's brown.  This is not one of those recipes.  It comes out perfectly every time.  And like a real lasagna, the first slice or two always looks, in the inimitable words of my mother, predigested.  There's an image you want to think about while reading about food.  Yeah.  Moving on.
This originally came from What's Cooking, the Kraft magazine.  I've made it with beef, but the pictures here are the one I made while cleaning out my freezer, so it's made with 1 lb bulk sausage.  It was good too.
I present to you now Kraft's Crockpot Lasagna:

Make Ahead Meals: Cheesy Chicken and Rice Bake

So.
I'm always looking for new recipes that I can make ahead and have J shove in the oven so we can eat about 15 minutes after I get home.  Such is the life of a type-A personality that will not allow her husband to do things in her kitchen that might not work out as expected.  You know, like the time he thought he put the dual burner on low, but it was really on high and he tried to burn chili to the bottom of the Le Crueset Dutch Oven.
He is, however, fully capable and willing to put pre-made casseroles in a cold oven and turn it on.  I'm always looking for things that I can make early that won't be adversely affected by the wait time.
I was poking around Pinterest one night and found this recipe.  It looked simple, filling, and like a possibility.  It's just not really June food.  I'm looking forward to making it again in November.
I present to you now Tasty Kitchen's Cheesy Chicken and Rice Bake: